This year, the price of domestic fruit in Poland is exceptionally high and that will translate into more expensive jams, juices and frozen food," reported Bożena Nosecka, from the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics. She added that imported fruits are cheaper than last year.
The rise in fruit prices is the result of this year's crop losses. During the flowering of fruit trees, frosts damaged the buds, so the harvest of almost all fruits this year is lower than in 2016. The smallest losses have been recorded in strawberry plantations, with just a 10 percent drop, and the biggest ones have been suffered by sour and sweet cherries, peaches and apricots, with up to 60%. In the case of apples, the most affected is the Idared, and the least the Champion, Gala and Gloster.
Due to the smaller harvests, processing plants are paying more for their raw materials this year. This applies to all fruits except raspberries, which are a little cheaper due to the large stocks of frozen fruit from Serbia. Imported fruits, such as bananas, lemons, apricots, oranges, nectarines and plums are also cheaper.
The CSO forecasts that this year's strawberry harvest will amount to 177 thousand tonnes (10% less), while that of cherries will stand at 70 thousand tonnes (60% less). Meanwhile, there will be 100 thousand tonnes of raspberries (20% less), 60 thousand tonnes of pears (25-30% less), 100 thousand tonnes of blackcurrants (20% less) and 60 thousand tonnes of plums (40% less). It is estimated that the apple harvest will fall on average by 30-35 percent, to 2.3-2.6 million tonnes.
Source: portalspozywczy.pl
